Provincialism and Constitutionalism: The Role of the States in Foreign Area Studies

While the states have, by constitutional pre sumption and historical practice, primary responsibility for public education in our society, they have not generally taken an active role—with the notable exception of a few state uni versities which have become major centers of teaching and re search—in developing resources and opportunities for the study of other areas of the world. Several surveys of foreign area studies have been made on a state-wide basis, and at least two of them have led to concerted action—namely, Indiana and New York. The resulting programs to strengthen the study of foreign areas by states have ranged from faculty training and development to efforts to strengthen library resources and other materials useful in teaching about other peoples and cultures. Indiana has been involved for the longest period, New York State has been the most active, and now several other states, in varying ways, have indicated interest or are making a beginning in meeting needs in this field. But if the states are to retain their central role in public education, they must cast aside their characteristic provincialism and respond far more readily than they have to the challenge of our revolu tionary world to American schools, colleges, and universities.